Different Region, Different Star Ocean: The Last Hope Interface

An embargo just lifted for a bunch of Star Ocean: The Last Hope media. I gave it glance and didn’t notice anything special. Pesmerga00 who has been following the game very closely did (thanks for the tip!!). It’s subtle, but it appears Square Enix is erasing anything anime in the English release of Star Ocean: The Last Hope.

Look at these battle screenshots and focus on the character portraits. The Japanese version (top) has anime faces while the English version (bottom) has CG models.

Even more noticeable are the menu differences. The Japanese version has colorful character silhouettes while the English build has a lot of… blue. The status screen and character icons use the CG models too.

English version menus

Japanese version menus

Pesmerga00 also discovered the character portraits accompanying dialogue vanished in the English version. I couldn’t find a good comparison screen in my batch of media, but going by the other changes I wouldn’t be surprised to see those removed too.

Why would Square Enix do this? Probably to make Star Ocean: The Last Hope look more sci-fi or something.

I’m cool with the menu and battle faces changing. But taking out the character portraits in conversation is very wrong to me. I actually hope the SE might offer the JP style as DLC…

Board_Hits_Back

Star Ocean 2 didn’t have them, lots of JRPGS don’t use portraits.

http://gplus.to/rootbeerking RootBeerKing

Star Ocean 1 and 2 for Psp have them though…and those games also kept the Jpop openings, so why is SE fuckin’ with this game so much?

Again, to think I was actually looking forward to this game…But SE just had to fuck with it/censor it… This isn’t the 80s/early 90s, anime is accepted now…

Anonthefold

quit being a newfag this is the final Star Ocean ever so Tri-Ace does not care what gets published. I never played SO1 or SO2 for the anime stylized drawings of each character but for the innovative battle and synth system it had. As well as the endings and the difficulty compared to most games. A couple alterations are not gonna keep me from seeing Roak in 3d.

Anonymous

Are you aware that when the reverse happened (Western publishers making graphic/illustration changes to their games for the Japanese release), there were lots of Western gamers who cried “Racism! The Japanese don’t accept our games the way they are!”.

They tweaked only graphical aspects or the packaging, boxart, they never did a racial bleaching like some did for the Western release of a Japanese game, like Persona, or Disaster Report, where all the characters where changed into blonde haired white people. Yet Westerners complained that Western games were changed for Japanese release.

GCX

i liked the anime look, hopefully we get some kinda option to switch between them

Zefiro Torna

Same here. This almost feels the whole Dragon Quest VIII thing all over again.

311

MAAAAN SE is beginning to become annoying they should give the gamer the choice within the game’s setting to choose anime or cg style

http://myanimelist.net/profile/Kuronoa Kuronoa

I understand if SE wanted to keep a consistant 3D models the whole game but what is the other point of these changes? Couldn’t they use that time for something else?

Also I’m fine with the menu changes but I like portraits with dialog. :X

http://several-hours-into-the-game.blogspot.com/ Nika

I agree. I liked the Japanese menu’s better, but those changes don’t bother me that much. But removing the character portraits from the dialog is annoying.

Aoshi00

It’s really weird they would do that… using CG models for the characters’ faces is like Xenosaga Ep 3. And to think that both Star Ocean 1 & 2 PSP remakes had an extreme anime makeover w/ cutscenes. And it seems like Jpn track will be absent from the US version, this kind of feels like the anime and CG version of Tales of Hearts.

I don’t mind them improving on the menu interface if it’s for practical purpose, like DQ VIII since the Jpn version’s is kind of archaic. I’d have to say the US menu looks easier on the eye, but the lack of Jpn track might force me to import..

Rebochan

Yea…except at least people buying Tales of Hearts had a choice.

Silverwolf X

And guess which version is in the bargain bins. :P

http://denpanosekai.blogspot.com denpanosekai

RIDICULOUS.

Zhemos

Just canceled my preorder. Screw Square-enix. God this pisses me off.

Star Ocean has always been anime influenced. WTF square WTF…….?

I wish tri-ace would partner up with Atlus or XSEED or someone other than square.

xHaseox

u mad

Seriously, that is a stupid reason to cancel a pre-order. Grow up.

PotatoSalad

Why is that stupid, he’s unhappy with the product.

xHaseox

Because it IS stupid.

Getting all pissy because of a minor difference like menu interfaces? No, not the combat, graphics or story. Stupid little character icons are the deal breaker.

Lagunado

Character icons are part of the game too, the anime style are the original design of the creators of game. The change is well if it’s better for the game, but this isn’t the case. The reason for change is stupid and rest value to the final product. The true fans of the saga wants to enjoy the game as originally was designed, if it’s possible.

In a rpg, not only the gameplay is important, the look, design of characters, music and the general style gives to the game the special touch.

Excuse my english please :$

Eggman

They were changed by the original design creators. You have no argument against it. It’s not like Microsoft was all, “Oh no, you can’t have anime in there, make it look like this.” tri-Ace obviously knew that real fans of the series would buy the game anyway and so they’d change the portraits and menus to reflect a more western idea to grab as many extra sales as possible.

People act like the character designer had nothing to do with the CG portraits.

Anonymous

Are you aware that when the reverse happened (Western publishers making graphic/illustration changes to their games for the Japanese release), there were lots of Western gamers who cried “Racism! The Japanese don’t accept our games the way they are!”.

They tweaked only graphical aspects or the packaging, boxart, they never did a racial bleaching like some did for the Western release of a Japanese game, like Persona, or Disaster Report, where all the characters where changed into blonde haired white people. Yet Westerners complained that Western games were changed for Japanese release.

Anonymous

Are you aware that when the reverse happened (Western publishers making graphic/illustration changes to their games for the Japanese release), there were lots of Western gamers who cried “Racism! The Japanese don’t accept our games the way they are!”.

They tweaked only graphical aspects or the packaging, boxart, they never did a racial bleaching like some did for the Western release of a Japanese game, like Persona, or Disaster Report, where all the characters where changed into blonde haired white people. Yet Westerners complained that Western games were changed for Japanese release.

Anonymous

Are you aware that when the reverse happened (Western publishers making graphic/illustration changes to their games for the Japanese release), there were lots of Western gamers who cried “Racism! The Japanese don’t accept our games the way they are!”.

They tweaked only graphical aspects or the packaging, boxart, they never did a racial bleaching like some did for the Western release of a Japanese game, like Persona, or Disaster Report, where all the characters where changed into blonde haired white people. Yet Westerners complained that Western games were changed for Japanese release.

Anon

Square Enix USA makes so many ridiculous decisions in order to appeal to the “western” market. What they can’t seem to understand is that the people they are trying to attract by making these changes aren’t going to care one way or the other. And it just angers the loyal fans.

The US menu interface is nice, but the CG portraits are hideous. The hand drawn portraits look leagues better.

If this game gets ported to PS3, I really hope they put in the anime portraits again or at least give us a choice in the game. I’m sure there is enough room for both sets of portraits.

They must stop making these needless changes. How they can still be so uninformed about what their fan base wants is astounding.

Raccoon

This just plain sucks! It partly destroys the game for me. I want the japanese version’s menudesign and characterportraits. Why don’t they just let the players decide by means of a menu option to change the interface or something?

;_;

Pichi

Seem to be going after the “Halo and Gears” type of demographic, I guess. Anime themed stuffed like TWEWY did well, from all the reports of it selling out. To them, its worth going to the “bigger piece of the pie there than the small piece of the loyal fans. If a PS3 version hits, I hope we get to choose.

Board_Hits_Back

Were they going after the Gears and Halo demographic when they made the characters CG anime style? No I don’t think so!

Pichi

Think about it, its 3D to them “looks less than anime” that way. Don’t forget the stigma of 2D by some younger gamers who didn’t grow up with it.

Vrakanox

Well I perfer the Anime stuff as well but It’s still going to be an amazing game with or without them.

http://slitherup.tumblr.com/ THRONE

Don’t really mind the other changes, but I do prefer the look of the japanese menu. ;[

Helves

What a…! I already don’t understand the sudden change in the classical Star Ocean menu and the logo pattern introduced with SO3 (after redesigning the first two for the PSP I really don’t get it…) but now this is….! I hope we, poor Europeans that have to wait fo two months more, are not getting this game based on the USA release…but I fear so…

Maybe people at Square Enix has to think again their strategy…they think the western market like CG models more than original artwork? maybe they don’t know western market that well…why did they become big in the first place? I don’t remember special treatments like this in the key games of the company’s growth…

I am a great fan of tri-Ace and I’m still expecting good things of this Star Ocean…but I can’t understand, Square Enix.

JeremyR

I guess they are trying to go after the Mass Effect crowd. Which could make sense, since that’s been more successful I think than any JRPG on the 360

ShadowYuri

There is still a possibility that US screens are shown like this and Japanese ones like that, but we have the choice in game ? I think so anyway, and I hope…

RikaFan

I dont like the new stupid ideas of Square Enix, i only hope that the look of the menus and the characters faces are optionals to the gamer.

Nabe

What’s wrong with you people? The CG models are absolutely gorgeous!

And god forbid they try to appeal to a broader audience!

Hilarious that someone here canceled their pre-order because of something as minuscule as this.

Aoshi00

You have a point there, since it’s logical to appeal to Western players who are more receptive of realistic Sci-Fi RPGs like Mass Effect. But it would be a little hard for the traditional fans to swallow since anime style has been an integral part of this franchise. It’s all a matter of preference. At least Tales of Hearts has two versions for people to choose.

So hopefully they would include the option to toggle btwn the two. What’s more important to me is the Jpn track, depending on the menu thing, I might dish out $90 for the import instead of the $60 US version, which is regrettable since the US game cover looks better than the Jpn counterpart in my opinion.

What’s private action w/o the anime char portraits :)

heero420

Wait where did the anime go in my rpg! im skipping this one now

JC

you’re skipping a game because of its interface? idiot

Anonymous

Are you aware that when the reverse happened (Western publishers making graphic/illustration changes to their games for the Japanese release), there were lots of Western gamers who cried “Racism! The Japanese don’t accept our games the way they are!”.

They tweaked only graphical aspects or the packaging, boxart, they never did a racial bleaching like some did for the Western release of a Japanese game, like Persona, or Disaster Report, where all the characters where changed into blonde haired white people. Yet Westerners complained that Western games were changed for Japanese release.

Cyan_Up

What a letdown! This is not a FF, its Star Ocean its meant to be anime styled!
Can you imagine dialogue without the portraits? No Portraits means no emotions and with the character models who look like soulless dolls they need them.

I think the new menus are much easier on the eyes. A clean, fluid interface is much preferred than all those bright colors in the Japanese version. Plus, there’s always a disconnect when using anime portraits of CG chars anyway. I think the CG portraits are a good idea.

I do not understand why they would take away character pictures from the speech boxes, but other than that I think the changes are for the better.

I can’t fault Square for trying to make it more visually pleasing to Western gamers. It’s not like they’re taking away content.

Cloud Graywords

This is really stupid, makes no sense…

WHY! change what looks increduble cool?!
this is just stupid we should start collecting signatures so they dont change it.

really im really REALLY mad with US people now.

Anonymous

I actually prefer the western version, the game is not anime looking so the cg look suits the game better in my opinion.

Board_Hits_Back

I really don’t understand people’s complaints. The game is CG anime, it only makes sense to follow that style.

Tales of Vesparia? Cell shaded anime, and guess what? It’s consistent with that style as well!

Also the yellow and pink Japanese menus look pretty puke ugly. The new menus look very slick.

Rebochan

Tales of Vesperia uses anime portraits in the interface and the skits.

error2k4

I think people talking about stuff they obviously have no idea about, should look at this link…

that’s coming from the dude that owns the company SE hired to do the localization, this is 100% official. Nothing was cut, and it wasn’t a decision made by SE USA. So yeah…

Chris

I don’t mind losing the character portraits, but the colorful menus looked so much better. Look how stylized menus worked in Persona 4!

http://gplus.to/rootbeerking RootBeerKing

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, the Japanese menu looks very Persona 4ish.

Chris

To all the people defending the changes: The problem isn’t that they’re trying to appeal to a broader audience. The problem is they’re not giving the gamer the choice.

Companies seem to hate actually letting players choose how to play games. For years they blocked 2d games from being localized on PS2 because they weren’t 3D enough. Why not let the market decide if 2d art is okay, and let gamers choose what they want, instead of dictating it to them?

Nobita

This only has a name, mother$%%·”$, I`m tiredof changes and stupidity from overseas. I DAMN YOU ALL SQUARE ENIX, I HOPE YOU GET BANKRUPT SOON AND DISSAPEAR FROM VIDEOGAMES FOREVER, or correct your error.

kurono

If the portraits in the Japanese version are animated, or contains different portraits to show different emotions, that may be the reason why there aren’t any in the North American version. They probably couldn’t get any additional renders done, so they decided to axe it. Just my take on it.

clyde

i wish they wouldnt have changed anything .. but oh well… im still excited for the game

http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

That’s the spirit :). These are UI changes, if Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a good game it’s still going to be a good game.

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

Takes me back to the days when they changed crosses to other symbols or added several pixels to a woman’s wardrobe.
This is not the change I wanted!

http://gplus.to/rootbeerking RootBeerKing

OMG, this is just wrong! What the fuck is wrong with Tri-ace?! Don’t they know Star Ocean is Square’s “Tales of”? Well looks like all my planss of buying a 360 for this game are out the door!

Shandy706

Grow up RootBeerKing, lol.

They changed the graphic interface and a few other things visually.

I don’t see anywhere in there that states they changed the way the game plays or that they took out the fun. People like you, and it seems there are many of you, make me laugh.

You don’t own a 360 already?? There are over 150 games on the 360 that have an average score over 8.0/10.0 across review sites. Your loss.

Anonymous

did you really believe he was even planning to buy the game? someone that disregards a game just because some animu portraits were replaced by CG must really check his/her priorities as a gamer. the US interface looks a lot better anyway, SO isn’t Persona. SO it’s not about being trendy or anything. SO is a sci-fi/fantasy game, the colorful menus looked way out of place. No to mention the solid blue looks horrible.

Rebochan

SO is also a franchise with heavy anime inspirations. Like, I dunno, the anime-influenced PSP ports with anime cutscenes that just came out on the PSP to promote this game?

Or the obviously anime-inspired and anime proportioned character models?

Yea, the people they’re trying to appeal to with this are the kind of people that are going to hate this game anyway.

http://gplus.to/rootbeerking RootBeerKing

Actually I did plan on buying the game. And probably still will regardless, that is when it’s ported to the PS3 as I don’t feel like spending 700 dollars on a new console at the moment.

http://gplus.to/rootbeerking RootBeerKing

I don’t own a 360, cause there’s only 4 games for it, that interest me.

Anywho, I just don’t like that they are changing things, that don’t need changing. It seems so stupid to me. I realize what they are changing, is a small thing in the grand scheme of it all, however it still bugs me.

And like I said in another post, I’ll buy the game regardless, if it’s ported to the PS3. But I take this news as a sign, not to spend 700 dollars, on a new console.

And lastly; glad I could make you laugh, that’s what I’m here for ;).

Anonymous

Are you aware that when the reverse happened (Western publishers making graphic/illustration changes to their games for the Japanese release), there were lots of Western gamers who cried “Racism! The Japanese don’t accept our games the way they are!”.

They tweaked only graphical aspects or the packaging, boxart, they never did a racial bleaching like some did for the Western release of a Japanese game, like Persona, or Disaster Report, where all the characters where changed into blonde haired white people. Yet Westerners complained that Western games were changed for Japanese release.

Anonthefold

Tales of games are the answer to Tri-Ace’s Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean. Do more research.

http://gplus.to/rootbeerking RootBeerKing

Actually you need to do your research, Tri-ace never made Tales of Phantasia, and the game actually came out before Star Ocean. Star Ocean was created by ex-Wolf Team members.

Keriaku

This is very, very upsetting

Anonymous

Disappointed with Siliconera for such a piece of misinformation. the localization team already mentioned NOTHING was cut, just that UI was changed (for the better IMO) and the anime portraits were replaced with CG, again absolutely NOTHING was cut. And there hasn’t been a single English media showing dialog boxes. So I don’t know where that Pesmerga fella got that SE USA cut out the portraits in the dialog boxes.

Aoshi00

What misinformation did this article report? It simply made a comparison of the two versions of interface featured in the Jpn & US version of the game. Evidently the style of presentation is cut, replaced, changed, or however one would like to call it. Whether they are for the worse or better depends totally on your taste, there’s nothing wrong for fans of the series to prefer the original style, instead of being shoved down their throats the “altered”, or supposedly more appropriate version. You can say you like it and others can also express their opinion if they dislike it, I don’t see the problem here. Personally I see the merits in each.

If there is an option to switch btwn the two, this is fine as long as people can choose. For me, the more pressing issue is the lack of Jpn dub, most games should include two tracks just like DVD / Blu-ray movies nowadays. You can do that in Sonic or Ninja Gaiden, so why not here provided sufficient capacity on the media.

Anonymous

Misinformation because he mentioned that dialog portraits were cut out, THAT’S NOT TRUE. NOTHING WAS CUT. So if he couldn’t make sure that piece of information was indeed correct, why post it? it’s just seems irresponsible to me.

Rebochan

If nothing was cut, why hasn’t there been any actual confirmation? It sounds like people that actually have preview copies of the game are finding content missing. If that’s not true, Squeenix really needs to say something. It’s their own fault this misinformation is spreading since they chose to not say a word about the alterations for the U.S. and just let us find out on our own.

Pichi

What previews are saying that content is missing? I have a feeling there is a rumor spreading and people are believing it. A localizer on GAF said that nothing was cut, its as close as confirmation at this point.

http://www.siliconera.com Spencer

Sorry you feel disappointed! Maybe using “removed” was the wrong choice of word, but it looks like Square Enix will swap out the anime-style portraits. Also, at Siliconera we tend to trust our long term readers so please don’t be afraid to identify yourself.

Neku

lol @ people defending this

Star Ocean has ALWAYS used anime portraits. This just completely disconnects the game from the series. And for what? To appeal to all the 13 year old Halo fanboys?

PROTIP: The ONLY people who are going to buy this game are JRPG fans. You’re driving away more people than you’re attracting, Square.

PROTIP: If each game made no changes, they’d all be the exact same game.

Of course, I suppose that then all the people canceling their orders in a temper tantrum WOULD be justified.

Shandy706

Grow up RootBeerKing, lol.

They changed the graphic interface and a few other things visually.

I don’t see anywhere in there that states they changed the way the game plays or that they took out the fun. People like you, and it seems there are many of you, make me laugh.

You don’t own a 360 already?? There are over 150 games on the 360 that have an average score over 8.0/10.0 across review sites. Your loss.

Boognish

Good, I think I’m one of the few that actually prefers the CGI. Can’t wait for this to drop.

Rensei, the gaming monk

I won’t say whether I feel this cosmetic change is good or bad, but I must ask why.
To say, “Why was this sort of thing necessary?”. The only answer I can think of is the fact that people will inevitably make the “X rips off Y” comparison (which is actually pointless, since everything rips off everything, in a sense). That and people are generally stupid.

I guess some people have a deathly fear of anime.

schu3tz

Oh the jackassery never ends! I personally wish the whole game were done in the anime style they seem so hell-bent on eradicating all trace of from the U.S. version of this game. The CG characters kinda creep me out. I’m also sure we will lose even the option of Japanese voices in the game as well. This is all because SE doesn’t really care that much about it’s hardcore fans. I’ll be buying this game regardless, but I’ll be wishing I just had the original japanese release with the text and menus translated.

jarrodand

Kinda sucks, but not that big a deal imo. It’d be nice if tri-Ace offered the JP IU as an optional download though…

Who

I prefer the anime pictures. Meh..I doubt I’d be looking at the character portraits at all anyway so this isn’t a huge problem I guess.

http://www.gamebump.com Symphony

Does anyone know if the Asian (HK) version will have anime or CG character arts?

VyseLegend

This is a pretty bad move, SE/MS/tri-Ace. Surely this was done to appeal to a more “western” audience with its Mass Effect-tailored tastes, but here’s the conundrum: this game never was and never is going to appeal to mainstream gamers in the West. Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, and Tales of Vesperia all essentially failed at that, and now what you’re doing is ignoring and betraying the die hard fans who have been following and anticipating the product for years.

Can’t say I expect better from SE, the publishers of Infinite Undiscrappery and Final Fantasy XII though.

Anonymous

To everyone who is complaining that they are “Betraying” their fans, you really need to take a look at your priorities, and grow up. This is a TINY change, that will not affect game play, and think about it. Its not like one person decided this was a good idea, they had meetings about it, considered their fan-base, and ran the decision by the dev team. If you refuse to buy this game, or lose respect for them for this change, you do not deserve to call yourself a gamer. If you want anime graphics or nothing, go watch an anime. It is as simple as that.

m1tsu

You misunderstand the fact that not all of us are “hardcore gamers.” Some, or even most of us posting here are actually “Hardcore RPG and JRPG gamers.” Technically the only reason I play games, is for RPG’s. I don’t go willy nilly around and waste $60 on a POS game I’ll play for a few hours and finish. I want to spend long hours on my $60, and I want to play it the way it was originally made with an addition of English subs. Thank you.

zach

i actually think these changes while very minor actually make the game look better to me. i would much rather look at a moving spacey blueness than ridiculous bright colors just my opinon

Scythe

To be honest I am not too happy about the changes. It seems that squenix is trying to appeal to the general 360 croud instead of to the hard core star ocean fans (never a good idea). It boils down to personal preference if one gamer prefers one way or the other, but to me, the japanese is much nicer.

Roflcopter

the american version of the main menu looks better….I dont give a **** about the battle icons its the same game anyway

keichi_maebara

i like the english version better, except for the portraits, i want those…but oh well…

http://www.ashleywinchester.com Ashley

Hmm…I’ve been playing the Japanese version of the game since its release and while I like the character portraits and the colorful Japanese background, at the same time I don’t think the English language version is “in the wrong”. The game’s environments are quite realistic looking and thus the CG portraits actually mesh better with the content. To be quite frank, the anime stuff is a bit out of place.

If you ask me, what Tri-Ace should have done was adjust the sound issues the game has: the battle music is WAY too loud and the overworld music is pratically muted.

http://www.ashleywinchester.com Ashley

Hmm…I’ve been playing the game since it released here [in Japan] last week and as charming as the anime portraits are, and as flashy as the menu screen backgrounds look, I’d actually say the CG portraits better suit the game. Star Ocean 4 is quite realistic looking in terms of the environments and objects (such as the space ships). The characters themselves look somewhat out of place with the cutesy look, something that say Xenosaga managed to avoid as despite its realism, the “lack” of graphical power of the PS2 prevented said series from “hyper” realism. With SO4 you have tiny little flakes of snow falling and pollen drifting…

If you ask me, what needed to be changed was the sound problems: the battle music is WAY too loud and the overworld music is far too soft. Even if you adjust the sound settings the problem still remains.

Autolooper

Accidental repost.

Autolooper

>_< I'm really disappointed that they decided to force people to use a different HUD based on which version they play. If they included both HUDs, fine then people can use what they want, and everyone can be happy.

Any reason to hesitate is going to affect sales based on people wondering what the differences are and which version to get while the price drops the longer they wait or they might decide to buy a used copy.

I think I'll wait and see. If they're doing silly things like changing the HUD, I don't trust them to leave everything else alone.

I'm curious as to how the HK version will be done. If it has English options and has the JP HUD, that could be a cool and unique experience!

Making the alternate HUD available as DLC would also relieve people's worry.

asv

all i can say is if u dont like it move to japan. haha.

Taz

Ok the truth to the matter is whats done is done making this USA version of Star Ocean 4 English Dub only was a mistake and not only that the anime to CG was also a mistake when all the other star ocean’s were Anime hand drawn style you can’t simply change it because of region, if anything include a option to pick which one you want, it really annoys me to see CG to be honest, CG is lazy mans creation when computers do all the calculations nowadays.

What’s done is done “but” on xbox360 a live update and or download content can fix this all, the patch would require some few mb is all its just small pics of data to give you option of CG to Anime style and for the dub Jap version addon choice would make every single Xbox 360 owner proud and happy I guarantee after all a choice is the best is this not what you want?

reply to this if you want to see downloadable content to include Anime portraits and status screens etc.. and Jap audio voices during all scenes and battles. You never know if they will include this just for thanking the people that bought this as downloadable content even if it costs money I WOULD pay any price for this so would many others.

I didn’t play this game as much as i did because i don’t like CG pictures in game and I dont like English voices because most of the time they suck, and the main hero’s voice sucks in USA version the girl was not that bad but if whoever is responsible for this please have download content to include choice of what you like Jap dub and Anime style, the CG its only good for movies.

Taz

which is my point to have choice either Anime or CG and either Jap or Eng dub who cares if they make it on 4 – 5 or 6 dvd dual layers who cares if they make you pay for the extra stuff i wouldn’t mind spending more money if it meant getting a better game overall, even with CG in no way was it made to be without Anime feel its got tons of Anime style scenes between the protagonist and the female heroine she slaps him and calls him a perv enough times lol that originated from Anime and manga and Jap games so why not make the overall experience selectable to be full Anime with Anime portraits too?

Portraits are important in rpg’s they stick with you throughout the game. This Star ocean 4 game is based off Anime and the characters eyes are huge its trying to pull the gamer into an Anime world regardless of what some people think of CG saying it fits better is wrong it makes me look at the game differently now and in a bad way, the game has no emotion they all feel like robot dolls to me, and to make it worst the Eng dub track have you heard how terrible most of the voices are,

exept for few to name one of them being Welch her voice is sassy and very interesting I can hear her emotions when she speaks, but people like Edge or Lymle the English voices are plain, uninteresting, expressionless, most of them look and sound like creepy doll robots. Whats with lymles slow robot like talk shes supposed to be a kid not a creepy tard baby robot sorry thats how she sounds and I’m afraid she may sound that way to the end of the game? lol

well there’s a few more that don’t pitch up either, none of them come close to the amazing acting of Welche’s voice whoever she is congrats your very skilled. I remember her from Lost Odyssey and some cartoon on TV, her voice has great acting skills. Lost Odyssey had decent Eng dub, usually games are mostly better with Japanese dubbing.

Valkyrie profile 1 on the PSX had great English Dubbing too you know why? Practically all the cast was known popular voice Actors/Actresses and they did a great job pulling it off. Its all about emotions in your voice having a good impressionable voice and pulling it off when your reading lines this is why most of the Japanese dubbing is almost always the best they know how to handle their voices and put many emotions in their voice acting.

My proof is Anime Japanese dubbing majority of us fans watch Anime with Jap dubs, for star ocean games it would of been better if they used Anime full on everything although I will still enjoy it with this CG but not as much as i did star ocean 2 and its Anime style. Sorry for my English if any mistakes, this not meant to start flame or influence people away from the game it is still good game but just not as hot as it could be, shame that.

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